RICHMOND, Va. – Mental health records for Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho that were missing for more than two years have been discovered in the home of the university clinic's former director, according to a state memo shared with victims' family members.

Cho killed 32 people on April 16, 2007, then committed suicide as police closed in. His mental health treatment has been a major issue in the vast investigation of the shootings, yet the records' location had eluded authorities.

They were revealed by a lawyer involved in a lawsuit filed by two families of Cho's victims against the former director, the university and several other parties, claiming gross negligence in failing to prevent the massacre.

A memo from the university to Gov. Tim Kaine's chief legal counsel and shared with victims' family members says Cho's records and those of several other Virginia Tech students were found last week in the home of Dr. Robert C. Miller. The memo was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The memo said Cho's records were removed from the Cook Counseling Center on the Virginia Tech campus more than a year before the shootings, when Miller left the clinic.

Kaine said a Virginia State Police criminal investigation was under way into why the records disappeared. Removing records from the center is illegal, he said.

Miller, 54, declined to comment when reached at a number for his private practice.

Miller is named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed by the families of slain students Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde. The suit claims Miller was told by Cho's English professors about his disturbing behavior and by the school's residential director that Cho had a history of erratic behavior, suicidal thoughts and had "blades" in his room.

The lawsuit claims Miller never passed that information on to either of the therapists from the counseling center who dealt with Cho during three 45-minute triage sessions in 2005.

Because Miller never passed on the information and the records were lost, opportunities to "deflect him (Cho) from his dangerous and ultimately tragic course were lost," the lawsuit states.

Notes of the warnings to Miller or those made by the therapists concerning the three meetings were never found by investigators. It is unclear if those are part of the recovered records.

The medical records are protected under state privacy laws. The state planned to release the records publicly as soon as possible, either by consent from Cho's estate or through a subpoena.

The discovery shakes up the lawsuit, an attorney for the two families said.

"Why would he (Miller) take any student mental health records to his home at any time, and why that student?" Robert T. Hall said.

"It certainly is a question of whether there is more to the Seung-Hui Cho mental health history than we've been told," Hall said.

Kaine said he was dismayed that it took two years to find the records.

"That is part of the investigation that I am very interested in and, of course, I'm very concerned about that," Kaine said.

The discovery calls into question the thoroughness of the ongoing criminal probe and the findings of the Virginia Tech Review Panel, a commission Kaine appointed to review the catastrophe, one victim's relative said.

"Deception comes to my mind in my first response," said Suzanne Grimes, whose son Kevin Sterne was injured.

"To say it doesn't make sense is an injustice," she said. "It gives me the impression: 'What else are they hiding?'"

While a large part of the shooting investigation focused on how university officials and law enforcement responded following the first reports of two deaths in a dormitory, family members of victims have also inquired how the troubled Cho slipped through the cracks at university counseling.

Miller was not listed among the more than 200 people interviewed by the panel. The leader of the investigation, former Virginia State Police Superintendent Gerald Massengill, said Wednesday that investigators interviewed Miller's successor at Cook Counseling Center, Dr. Christopher Flynn, but not Miller.

Massengill said Cho's records could be critical to understanding the rampage, depending "on what the records say, what they reveal."

"To have any documentation reflecting or giving an understanding of what actions Cook Counseling took was certainly what we were looking for," he said.

Massengill said the records "should give us a better understanding of what actions the university did or did not take."

The public's view of the troubled 23-year-old came from the video tirade he mailed to NBC News between the first two slayings in a dormitory and the killing of 30 more people in a classroom building.

It seems that all the professors that complained about Cho's behavior were female: English professors. (And that makes sense, as English class is one place where teachers get to know their students through their writing.) Dr. Miller, who ran the Cook Counseling Center on campus--and under whose direction, every therapist seems to have lost their notes on Cho--may have had an issue with women. I'll bet he thought these women were overreacting and decided that there was nothing wrong with the Cho.

I am going through the lawsuit. The Cook Counseling Center that Miller ran seems to have been completely incompetent under Miller's watch. They ignored professor after professor who went to them with concerns. Eventually, Cho was brought to the university police, held under restraining order, and referred to Cook Counseling Cetner where they, again, completely fucked up. What the hell was Miller doing in that Center?

Miller was an EdD: that is not a psychology or psychiatry degree, but an Education doctorate, and not even a research one. An Ed.D. lets you be a school counselor.

Here's his faculty page at Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine:
http://www.vcom.vt.edu/facultystaff/facultybio/Miller.html

Teetop

07-23-2009, 05:16 PM

Teetop,

I am going through the lawsuit. The Cook Counseling Center that Miller ran seems to have been completely incompetent under Miller's watch. They ignored professor after professor who went to them with concerns. Eventually, Cho was brought to the university police, held under restraining order, and referred to Cook Counseling Cetner where they, again, completely fucked up. What the hell was Miller doing in that Center?

Miller was an EdD: that is not a psychology or psychiatry background, but an Education doctorate, and not even a research one. An Ed.D. lets you be a school counselor.

Here's his faculty page at Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine:
http://www.vcom.vt.edu/facultystaff/facultybio/Miller.html

Only thing I can figure out of what Miller was doing was, just drawing a paycheck.

Elspeth

07-23-2009, 05:27 PM

Only thing I can figure out of what Miller was doing was, just drawing a paycheck.

This is even worse:

158. In addition to the spoliation of the records which were required by state law to be
created and maintained on this patient, the officers, agents and employees of the Cook
Counseling Center, or some of them, following the tragic events of April 16, 2007 engaged in a
cover-up of the events surrounding Cho’s overnight detention at Carilon St. Albans Behavioral
Center, the court order that he undergo outpatient therapy, and his subsequent release by the
Cook Counseling Center.

Good Lord! What the hell was going on over there??

159. Defendant Flynn became the Director of the Cook Counseling Center in 2006.
When interviewed by Harry Smith of CBS Morning News following the events of April 16, 2007
and asked why Cho had been released by the Cook Counseling Center on December 14, 2005,
Defendant Flynn falsely stated that Cho had been released because he had been diagnosed and
treated by others and not released by them until it was determined that he was no longer a danger
to himself or others, and that Virginia Tech had no control over the others.

160. The cover-up continues. As recently as April 9, 2009, Dr. Edward Spencer Vice-
President of Student Affairs, being interviewed on the Diane Rehm Radio Show (NPR) asserted
that three mental health professionals associated with Dr. Miller’s Cook Counseling Center had
independently done a threat assessment on Seung-Hui Cho and concluded he was not a threat to
himself and others.

161. No threat assessment of Seung-Hui Cho was ever made by any mental health
professional at Cook counseling Center, and the poverty of Dr. Spencer’s contention that they
had so evaluated him is evident because one such professional, Sherry Lynch Conrad, saw Cho
the very day he had been adjudicated mentally ill and a danger to himself and denies any
awareness that Cho was in to see her because of that adjudication.

Elspeth

07-23-2009, 06:04 PM

This is evil:

The first shooting happened at 7:15

The university's PR people argued about how to send out a warning without hurting Tech's image. They don't issue any kind of alert until over two hours later, when students are in class. The warning says nothing about anyone having been killed or about any gunman being at large.

207. At 09:26 a.m., after Seung-Hui Cho had returned to campus, the Emergency
Policy Group issued an alert which said: “A shooting incident occurred at West Ambler Johnston
this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating. The university community is urged to
be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or
with information on the case.”

208. The alert did not constitute a warning. While it urged the university community to
be cautious, about what should it be cautions - a shooting incident of undescribed nature, which
made no mention of any injuries, let alone a double homicide?

209. The alert made no mention that the gunman who had already killed two people
was still at large, that he [or she, for that matter] might still be on campus, that he or she was
presumably still armed and potentially dangerous, and that students, faculty and employees
should take all precautions for their own safety and that classes and all extra-curricular activities
were being cancelled until further notice.

HOWEVER, the Administrators, knowing the real danger, PROTECTED THEMSELVES (and not the students.)

Before 09:00 a.m. Byers notified his administrative assistant to lock their doors.
Mr. Byers was then meeting with the Emergency Policy Group in an office in the Burrus
building on the same floor with his office that he had just directed be locked down.

217. Upon information and belief at that time and place Burrus Hall, the administration
office building, was locked down.

218. Another member of the Emergency Policy Group, Kim O’Rourke, staff assistant
to President Steger, had called her home and recommended that her child stay inside.

219. The university’s veterinary school went into lockdown.

The veternary school?

Oh, and the governor was warned:

Ralph Byers, in charge of Government Relations for Virginia Tech
notified William H. Leighty, Chief of Staff to Governor Kane, before 9 a.m. that one student was
dead and another one critically wounded and a gunman was at large.

But the students were not told this??

Burris Hall, the administrators' building was on LOCKDOWN. But the student classroom buildings and dorms were NOT ON LOCKDOWN. Cho passed by Burris but couldn't get in. Norris Hall, the student classroom building, was open and Cho did get in.

Seung-Hui Cho’s route of travel back from the Blacksburg Post Office to Norris
Hall where he shot and killed 30 people took him directly past Burrus Hall, whose occupants
were safe because, armed with the knowledge of the risks involved, they had gone to lockdown.

221. Passing by Burrus Hall, which he could not enter, Seung-Hui Cho arrived at
Norris Hall, which was unprotected because neither the students nor faculty in Norris Hall had
been warned that a gunman was loose, perhaps on campus.

222. As Seung-Hui Cho opened fire on his defenseless victims in Norris Hall, the
sound of his gunfire could be heard in the room occupied by the Emergency Policy Group. (In Burris Hall)

This should be considered a criminal act.

Elspeth

07-23-2009, 06:21 PM

And even more evil:

Tech didn't warn the students of a killer on the loose because the University was in fundraising mode:

223. Was there a reason why the “image group” on the Emergency Policy Group was
especially concerned with the university’s image at this time?
a. Scheduled at the University in the succeeding two weeks was a meeting
described as a “gala kickoff” for the largest fund raising drive the university had ever
undertaken.
b. During this fund drive the university hoped to raise up to $1.2 billion
dollars from both individual contributors and corporate and institutional donors.
c. The university had for some time as of April 16, 2007 been utilizing the
resources of outside public relations agencies to monitor, and on occasion shape, the
university’s image.

So, when Cho killed his first two victims, and while he went off campus to post his message to the media (a period of over an hour and a half), the university administrators were debating PUBLIC IMAGE:

i. Information that there had been a double homicide on campus had to be
very carefully managed because that incident had the potential... to convey the message
that the university had substantial safety issues which were not being adequately
addressed....

j. The “image group” on the Emergency Policy Group succumbed to the
temptation to hope or wish that Hilscher’s boyfriend would prove to be the killer, because
that conclusion offered the only possibility that the public reaction to the information
which would emanate from the university about this double homicide could be managed
or controlled.

k. The image group’s wishes or hopes were not grounded in fact, were
tragically wrong, misguided and in error. Their reliance on a hope or wish that Emily
Hilscher and Ryan Clark were somehow killed by a jealous lover not only denied them
the dignity in death to which they were entitled, but blinded the leadership of the
university to a far harsher reality. There was, as there had been since 07:15 a.m. [with the
exception of Seung-Hui Cho’s trip to the Blacksburg Post Office] “a gunman loose on
campus”.

The University only made the announcement about the murders when it had to: while Cho was killing over 30 people in the student classroom building next door: Norris.

l. When the university made that announcement gunfire could be heard in
the Emergency Policy Group meeting. The correct announcement, the first adequate
announcement came at least one hour too late and it could have been given at 07:50 a.m.,
two hours earlier based upon the information then known.

Elspeth

07-23-2009, 06:28 PM

And this makes me really sick. A few hours after the massacre, the PR people call!

i. At 1:58 p.m. on April 16, 2007 Defendant Steger received an email from
the Advisory Co-Chair of the fund raising gala scheduled in the next two weeks
following that morning’s massacre.

ii. At that time the bodies of most of the victims still lay in Norris Hall.

iii. After expressing his condolences for the events of that morning, the
gentleman said, “I am also thinking of the ramifications to the (fundraising)
weekend... the tragedy ...also represents an opportunity to communicate ... and to
solicit support both financially and morally.

iv. Within two weeks of that email, after negotiations with the largest public
relations firm in the United States, the university, through its President, entered into
a contract with Burson Marstellar in which it agreed to pay that agency $600,000
for “corporate positioning” with respect to this tragedy and in support of its fund
drives.

Not seven hours after the first killings and not four hours after last ones, the PR guy is already trying to figure out how to make money for the school off of the tragedy. Not two weeks later, the University hires a more PR to defend themselves against accurate news of the tragedy.

AlmostThere

07-23-2009, 08:28 PM

Miller must be a Hillary supporter. Records disappear for years and then mysteriously turn up in the living quarters. :rolleyes:

Elspeth

07-23-2009, 10:53 PM

Miller must be a Hillary supporter. Records disappear for years and then mysteriously turn up in the living quarters. :rolleyes:

Now, now...:)

Teetop

07-24-2009, 12:30 AM

Sadly, there will be a lot to answer for, from the Cho shootings at VT. Unfortunately, it also will be "white-washed". :rolleyes: